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Outside, the Hotel Drisco is nondescript; inside, it's old world elegance.

By Chris Barnett

If you’re looking for a hideout to brainstorm the next Google, hammer out a multibillion dollar merger or tryst the night away, the Hotel Drisco on the hilltop corner at 2901 Pacific and Broderick might fit your bill. A bastion of secrecy since its opening more than a century ago, there is scant history about the comings and goings of the owners and guests of the 43-room Pacific Heights luxury roost.
The spot’s penchant for clandestine hospitality goes back to its founding in 1903. One version has it that an entrepreneur named Frank Drisco built the six-story boarding house that year to lure the steamer trunk set — global travelers who would prize the panoramic views of the bay, the city’s emerging skyline and exclusive neighborhood. To capture that crowd, he named it the El Drisco. It sounded more worldly.

Another story, which seems more credible given the clustered wealth of this gilded city at the turn of the 20th century, was passed along by a former hotel manager named Harold Ellison. In his telling, Frank Drisco was one of a group of powerful businessmen who ponied up to build a hideout for their mistresses. Each investor had a private suite and was served by ornately costumed Chinese maids. That might explain why the facade is less than architecturally inspired. Drisco and his cohorts didn’t want to attract attention.

Today’s general manager Gerard Lespinette merely chuckles when asked about specifics of the Drisco’s colorful, controversial past. Dignified and courtly, he managed the late, 14-room Sherman House on Green Street before he took command of the El Drisco 10 years ago. Lespinette stayed on when San Francisco-based Joie de Vivre Hospitality took over operations in 2003. The property was renovated 1½ years ago, its third revamp in a decade.

Robert C. Pritiken, a former advertising agency chieftain who owned the 26-room Mansion Hotels — two attached Victorians on Sacramento Street — and no stranger to publicity, says “I vaguely think I almost bought” the El Drisco years ago. “I was in the throes of battling the ‘bureaucraps’ over my existing hotels,” he says, whose clientele included Barbra Streisand, John F. Kennedy Jr., Liberace and countless other luminaries in the entertainment and political circles who wanted total privacy and gracious service that they couldn’t get from the big hotels downtown.

Pritiken, known for performing a nightly magic show at The Mansions and playing a jagged tooth saw with a bow, didn’t see a deal. The Drisco didn’t have a restaurant; his hotels did. “They were snooty and selling guest rooms. We were fun and funky and selling ghost rooms,” he says. “My property was, without question, haunted — a fact verified by some of the great demonologists of the world.”

Pritiken, who waged war with City Attorney Louise Renne when he grafted his two Victorians without a permit, lost and sold them.

With the Sherman House and Pritiken’s Mansions gone, the Hotel Drisco has no real competition in Pacific Heights for what is essentially a five-star bed and breakfast. The facade is nondescript, distinguished only by the American and California flags. Inside, it’s old world elegance and high-tech wizardry.

The small mahogany front desk resembles a butler’s station in an English country house. Opposite is a small but airy sitting room. The two massive libraries built by Little Rock, Arkansas, lawyer Ector Johnson when he bought the hotel in 1944 are gone, but there’s a DVD library with 150 free titles. And other furnishings and amenities in the 48 rooms and suites rival and sometimes beat the pricey downtown hotels.

Guest rooms at the Hotel Drisco offer views of the homes in Pacific Heights.

For example, high-speed Internet access is free in guestrooms. Voice mail is personalized. No charge for the safe, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times or the Chronicle delivered on request. There’s a nightly wine reception at which guest vintners sometimes pour their favorites. A breakfast served in the downstairs dining room is also on the house. Nice touches: The OJ is freshly squeezed, the croissants are light and buttery and the pastries are French.

Some other surprises, good and bad, include free passes to the Presidio YMCA for those who want more of a workout than the 24-hour fitness room can offer with its treadmill, Stairmaster, stationary bike and free weights. The business center, open limited hours, has a computer, but it comes at a price: $6 for the first 20 minutes and $10 for each half hour, keyboarding or online.

And the hotel has no parking valet, no garage, not even reserved spaces on the street. Drisco guests, like every other San Franciscan without a garage, have to scramble for street parking — and they must move their cars every two hours or risk a $50 ticket. But concierge Marti Medina says the staff will pitch in and move cars when needed. And a Town Car is available weekday mornings to take business travelers to Union Square and the Financial District.

Rates range from $169 to $259 for a king-bedded room and from $519 to $609 for a two-bedroom suite, depending on the time of the week and year.

Current Issue

STREET TALK

LA BOULANGE TURNING INTO A NEW PIZZERIA

Workers are hammering and sawing away inside the long-shuttered La Boulange storefront on Fillmore. A sign promises it will be the new home of apizza, serving up “a pizza for everyone” that is fast and affordable — complete with organic dough and sauce.

Details are scant, but the quintessentially French Pierre Lauga, in charge for owner Pascal Rigo, promises pizzas will be priced reasonably, starting at $2.75 for a 10-incher. There’s speculation the ovens will be fired up and serving in late March.

In addition to pizza, beer and frozen yogurt will also be on the menu.

THREE DAY WEEKENDS AT THE ELITE CAFE

The Elite Cafe has extended its weekend brunch to Friday, trimming a day from Spacious, the co-working space that occupies the restaurant weekdays until 5 p.m.

For six years, the helpful staff offered hundreds of tastes at Spice Ace, the culinary boutique at 1821 Steiner named one of the world’s best spice shops.

But early in the new year, owners and neighborhood residents Olivia Dillan and Ben Balzer announced they would be closing the shop. Then came an ourpouring of appreciation from fans who swarmed the shop to stock their spice racks.

“January was our biggest month ever — even with a 30 percent discount,” says Dillan. “It was a customer success and a culinary success, if not a financial success. That means a lot.”

POPPING UP AND STICKING AROUND

Lots of new pop-ups are showing up on Fillmore, and some of them stick around.

Zuri, the three-month one-dress shop at 2029 Fillmore, has now moved into a long-term home at 1902 Fillmore, where Narumi Japanese antiques shuttered last fall after 37 years.

And Sweet & Spark, which first popped up inside Mudpie, has taken over the former hair salon at 2412 Fillmore.

“The state of retail has changed dramatically,” said Vasilios Kiniris, executive director of Fillmore’s merchants and a citywide merchant leader, who sees “many advantages” to pop-ups. “Business owners can dip their feet into a commercial community and see if their product or service is a good fit.”

A BUFFETT’SBACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Investor Warren Buffett’s late wife Susie lived in Pacific Heights for a time, and his son Peter owned a home on Scott Street.

Now his Berkshire Hathaway branded residential real estate company has opened an office in the neighborhood, taking the two spaces on California Street previously occupied by the Vino wine shop and Kuraya antiques. Paula Gold-Nocella and Peter Shovanes are leading the office.

LET US COUNT OUR MICHELIN STARS

How fortunate are we to live in this neighborhood? The new Michelin guide offers a clue.

• Three Fillmore restaurants got a star: SPQR, the Progress and State Bird Provisions, plus Octavia at Octavia and Bush and Spruce on Sacramento.

• At 3127 Fillmore, Atelier Crenn got three stars. Next door, the new Bar Crenn also got a star.

• And we can still claim Quince, now all beautifully grown up in Jackson Square, which also got a full set of three stars, and first planted its roots where Octavia is now.